Leg 2: Cafayete to Belen

We felt great leaving Cafayete because we'd had our first rest day, our first proper meals, and Catherine had agreed to be my wife (therefore I figured I had about 10 day's grace with no arguments). The sun was shining, the road was paved, gently undulating and mostly downhill, and we cycled through mile after mile of vineyards. We even saw a 'wild' dachshund in the desert. The whole day was pretty much perfect and we arrived into Santa Maria looking forward to enjoying the hospitality of 'some of the friendliest people in all of Argentina' (Lonely Planet). We've never, before or since, seen such a glum, humourless bunch. The campsite followed in the Argentine tradition of making sure that kids have no bedtime and that a sizeable disco is situated in the centre of the camping area. We got little to no sleep because of the pounding bass and because of the kids constantly tripping over the guy ropes. We were the only tent there, so maybe we souldn't have been camping in their disco? On the positive side, we were joined for dinner by a mum and her pups who flawlessly executed the age-old 'distract-and-steal' scam on Catherine.


On the second day we left for Nascimientos, and saw straight roads for the first time. Very straight roads, with not even a kink for more than 30km at a time. This gives the sensation that you are on a fixed training bike in a gymn, with nothing but a painting of an endless road to stare at. We also discovered that wind is the 'new sand' and a headwind can slow your pace to a crawl even on a downhill section. We need to get used to this because we have heard from people travelling the other way, to expect winds of up to 120km per hour in the south. Because of the wind, and the road deteriorating into ripio again, we didn't make it as far as we hoped so had to camp in the desert again, but we found a lovely sheltered spot beneath some mountains and the following sunrise was spectacular.

The desert is not the most comfortable bedroom but the complete silence allows the soundest sleep. We set off refreshed in the morning and covered more ground in the first couple of hours than we had in twice the time during the previous afternoon. We passed through the small vineyard pueblo of Hualfin where we held our first Spanish 'conversation' with a chatty local. This was significant for us because we realised that we're finally capable of holding a reasonable conversation, albeit as long as we don't deviate from the topic of road conditions and weather. We arrived into the small town of Belen via a winding road that cuts through a deep gorge (this is worth mentioning if you've just cycled through 270km of flat desert). Belen is a nice town with a sociable town square full of families eating and drinking until the small hours. Checking our bikes over for the first time, we found that my bike had suffered the first injury with a broken rear spoke (drive side of course, to make it more complicated). When changing the spoke I noticed that a tooth on the cassette was also bent, so I took it to a local bike repair shop (literally a man with a hammer and a vice), and he whacked it back into shape. It works fine now and I am learning to be much less precious about the bike.

Day 4: Cafayete to Santa Maria - 78km
Day 5: Santa Maria to Nascimientos - 89km
Day 6: Nascimientos to Belen - 86km